


Cheer Up

by orphan_account



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: M/M, Sleepovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Let's just hope Gene and Alex's second sleepover goes better than the first.
Relationships: Gene Belcher/Alex Papasian
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	Cheer Up

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I'm Not That Girl](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23604532) by [orphan_account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account). 



> I also wrote Not That Girl and this is kind of like an epilogue to that, so I guess you should read that one first.

So it's not the first time Alex Papasian has turned up at the Belcher's front door, rain-soaked and shivering. He's still wearing his suit from the dance - it only ended an hour ago, so it makes sense. He looks a little crestfallen that Bob answers the door.

"Alex? What are you doing here? Where are your parents?"

"Can I just come in, Mr. Burger?" Alex grits out. He does look miserable, drenched to the skin, glasses rain-fogged. Bob sighs.

"Not my name. But - yeah, come in. Definitely explain yourself, though. Once you're inside."

Bob starts up the stairs while Alex is toeing off his muddy dress shoes on the lower landing. 

Upstairs, Gene, Tina and Louise are poring over a yearbook in their pyjamas, notes strewn over the kitchen table.

"Maybe Darryl, I heard him and Rosa were going through a rough patch -"

"No, I talked to him, they agreed to just stop talking about the prequels altogether and that's pretty much solved it…"

"Gene, your friend is here." Bob says, in a way that really means Gene, Why Is Your Friend Here In My House In My Home With Absolutely Zero Warning. Gene, for his part, just blinks owlishly at his father.

"What friend?" He asks.

"Yikes."

"This friend," Alex says, hauling himself to the top of the stairs at last. God, that kid is soaked. The carpeting on the staircase is on its last legs as it is. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be so dramatic, I just - the opportunity was right there."

"Alex!" Gene rockets up from the table and over to him. "What happened to you, why aren't you at home?"

"Uh," Alex opens his mouth to answer and then looks past Gene to where Louise and Tina are sitting, the former with her head propped up in her hands and an expression of rapturous interest. Bob sighs.

"Girls, go help your mom, uh, what is she doing?"

"Showering," Tina replies helpfully, gathering up the notes. 

"Okay, not that. Just give your brother some privacy, alright?"

"Help Mom shower, got it." Louise parrots, sliding off her chair cheerfully.

"I know you misheard me on purpose, Louise, I swear to God," Bob grumbles, waving the two boys over to the newly vacated table. "Spill, kid."

Alex wrings his hands. The same way Gene does, Bob notices. His wet hair is hanging straight over his face and sticking to his glasses.

"It's really not a big deal. I just - I kind of had a fight with my parents when I got home. Nothing serious, but I didn't want to be there and I didn't have anywhere else to go, so. Yeah." Gene reaches over and with a kind of quiet intensity, pushes Alex's hair off his face and to the side. Bob can feel a headache forming, right in his sinuses.

"Right, well, first off I'm calling your parents and letting them know where you are. That's the kind of thing you're supposed to do." He gets up from the table and crosses over to the phone, flipping through the notebook they keep attached to the wall that's full of phone numbers. The boys are whispering furiously, so obviously at some point in the last couple years Gene finally learned how to whisper, and Bob gets a little distracted by a cartoon hotdog someone's drawn in the corner of the page that dances when you flip through the notebook. It's pretty cool. He really likes it.

"Dad, is it okay if Alex sleeps over tonight?"

"Uh," Wow, he should have an opinion on this. Where's Linda? It's not bad that he doesn't really mind, right? Is this the kind of thing other parents get up in arms over?

"Please, Mr. Belcher?"

Oh, fine. At least the kid learned his name.

"Oh, I'm so excited!" Linda sing-songs, while the boys are setting up a sleeping bag-slash-couch-cushion bed in Gene's room and Tina and Louise have reclaimed the kitchen table for their notes once more. "I  _ love _ sleepovers. What are you two girls doing, anyhow?"

"Sleuthing," Louise says, circling another name in the yearbook and making a note on one of the loose sheafs of paper.

"This Valentine's Day, I'm a love detective," Tina informs her, adjusting her glasses. "Now that Gene's sorted out, I'm turning my talents to my own romantic intrigue."

"Ooh, intrigue! But wait, you never did tell me what you did for your brother."

"I just talked him through some things. It's no big deal," Tina says modestly, because the best heroes are the ones that go unsung. Though in Linda's presence, everyone gets a little bit sung, but there's no helping that.

"Wait, you don't  _ know _ ? I thought that's why you and Dad had this whole sleepover thing!" Louise sets down her pen and fixes her mother with her best steely gaze. "You're telling me Alex is staying over on Valentine's night and you didn't plan it?"

"Plan it?" Their mother trills, "Now why would we plan - oh. Oh!"

Tina and Louise both clap their hands over their ears, just in time for Linda to shriek  _ oh, my baby! _ loud enough for Bob to come running. As close as he gets to running, with his knees. Ambulating.

"Oh, my mom texted."

Gene rolls over to look down at where Alex is in the sleeping bag below, lit up blue by his cellphone. "What's the prognosis, doc?"

"She says she's not mad, she'll pick me up tomorrow, kisses."

"Back off, woman!" Gene stage-whispers, "He's mine!"

Alex doesn't laugh, and Gene looks over to see him sitting up and looking at him, his phone screen reflecting off his glasses and masking his eyes. He truly doesn't know what to make of his expression. Gene shifts uncomfortably, sitting up and tangling the sheets around his legs in that way he hates.

"We can go back to how we were, you know." He starts, chest a little hollow. "I don't mind - if you don't want to… I don't want us to ever not be friends."

Alex clicks his phone closed and sets it back by the bed. "Is that what you want?"

Whoever said that Gene's chest was hollow before was wrong, because now there's something in there and it's twisting up tight. He gulps. "No," he whispers. 

It had all been so easy earlier, when there was music and laughing and bright lights and they'd both been so excited. Now they're in the dark and it's quiet and they're all alone, and it's kind of terrifying. Not necessarily in a bad way.

He blinks when there's a shift of weight on the mattress and Alex settles at the foot of his bed, poking his toes under the duvet.

"I really like this," he confesses, tugging the sheets out from where they're caught, pulling them free from Gene's legs. "It was pretty dumb of me to come here tonight. This is all kind of a lot for one day."

"You're telling me!" Gene says, stretching gratefully. "Are you sure your parents aren't mad about, you know -"

Alex rolls his eyes at that. "Yes! I've told you a million times, they're just mad about this stupid summer job stuff. I guess after the dance, I kind of went off on Mom for trying to make me go upstate again." He looks down at his lap. "I was just having such a good time, it really sucked that she brought it up right  _ then _ , you know? I wanted to have this."

"It sucks that she wants you to go upstate. That's where turtles go to die."

"'S all dead pets and dumb uncles who  _ run a factory, Alex, you can stay with him for a summer and get ground up in a stamping machine, _ " he parrots, turning around so he can flop down next to Gene on the bed.

"Yeuch, don't say that. I like my Alex solid and pasty, not paste." Gene says, screwing his face up and sticking his tongue out. "You should text Lenny, he's got an aunt who runs this dinky gift shop down the shore. He's always complaining about having to do inventory."

"Wow, you sure know how to sell a guy."

"Hey, that's illegal!"

"Lin, I think it's fine. And I think my spine may never be the same," Bob whispers, bent double and holding a glass to Gene's bedroom door. Linda whaps him on the shoulder.

"Oh Bobby, I told you it'd be fine! They're just kids."

"I know that, I think you'll recall I  _ said _ that, and then you made me do this anyway, even though our walls are paper-thin and we could have  _ probably _ listened in from the comfort of the living room couch." Bob mutters, standing up with a sound like a bag of crisps being stepped on. "C'mon, we don't have to worry about anything…  _ untoward _ , here. He's not Tina."

"Damn right!" Gene calls from inside, sparking a muffled  _ Hey! _ from the next room.

"God damn it," Bob grumbles.

The next morning brings pancakes, eggs, ( _ oh, thank God, real food, _ Alex whispers) and the janky fold-out chair from the closet, for guests. Tina yawns halfway through a sip of orange juice and briefly chokes, and Louise pads in in her pyjamas to present Tina with a piece of notepaper before accepting her plate.

"What's that?" Linda asks, pouring herself a coffee. 

"The result of a hard night's work, not that any of you were any help," Louise says darkly, brandishing a butter knife.

"It's the shortlist of potential secret admirers I have," Tina explains, scanning the page. "We've examined all the data in hopes of finding the Heart."

"Anyone interesting?" Gene asks, mouth full. Tina just folds the paper smartly, tucking it into the pocket of her sleep pants.

"That's for my eyes only."

"And mine, since I wrote it and helped you with all this?" Louise reminds her. "So you're going to get Jimmy Jr to convince his dad to let the twins out with us next Saturday? Right?"

"Right. Thanks Louise, I couldn't have done it without you."

" _ Finally _ ," Louise rolls her eyes. "Some recognition."

"Ooh, that reminds me" Gene says. "You should text Lenny about the job."

"Uh, I don't know, Gene," Alex says, toying with the phone. "I don't really know Lenny, I don't think I've ever really talked to him, it's kind of weird…"

"Yoink!" Gene plucks the phone out of Alex's hands and starts tapping. "I'll text him and say it's from me, don't even worry about it."

"Aw, my little baby lovebird!" Linda croons, and Bob says "Lin, no, don't," as Gene giggles and Alex flushes crimson.

"Aw." Tina says, fondly. "I did this."

After breakfast, there's a blaring car horn from outside and Gene walks Alex down the stairs to the front door, while his parents hover creepily at the top of the staircase, like bats. And if Bob rubs tears from his eyes when Alex kisses Gene goodbye, Linda comments on it,  _ loudly. _


End file.
